Dante's Paradiso a combined 'Honours' Course

Beatrice takes over as Dante’s guide when Virgil reaches his permitted limit at the summit of Purgatory, in the Earthly Paradise, until she, in turn.

Along the way, she instructs Dante in the significance of what he beholds and of much else besides, including astronomy, the properties of light, theology, free will and the nature of God.

If this makes the poem seem like a combined honours course, or several at once, the impression isn’t mistaken, for Dante himself undergoes an intense viva on the Christian virtues by Saints Peter, James and John. Beatrice begins one typical lesson by saying ‘secondo mio infallibile avviso’ (‘in my infallible opinion’)

Beatrice's teaching is not only administered with smiles: she puts on a whole firework display of inner glowing, as teachers generally do when imparting their supposed, prized 'knowledge'.